Outraged over a Bow????? Come On!

WASHINGTON (AFP) – News photos of President Barack Obama bowing to Japan's emperor have incensed critics here, who said the US leader should stand tall when representing America overseas.

Obama on Monday was in China, having wrapped up the Japan leg of his Asia trip two days earlier. But Washington's punditocracy was still weighing whether or not the US president had disgraced his country two days earlier by having taken a deep bow at the waist while meeting Japan's Emperor Akihito.

Political talk shows have played and replayed the moment from the second day of Obama's week-long Asia tour, which set the blogosphere on fire and chat show tongues wagging.

"I don't know why President Obama thought that was appropriate. Maybe he thought it would play well in Japan. But it's not appropriate for an American president to bow to a foreign one," said conservative pundit William Kristol speaking on the Fox News Sunday program, adding that the gesture bespoke a United States that has become weak and overly-deferential under Obama.

Another conservative voice, Bill Bennett, said on CNN's "State of the Union" program: "It's ugly. I don't want to see it."

"We don't defer to emperors. We don't defer to kings or emperors. The president of the United States -- this coupled with so many apologies from the United States -- is just another thing," said Bennett.

Some conservative critics juxtaposed the image of Obama with one of former US vice president Dick Cheney, who greeted the emperor in 2007 with a firm handshake but no bow.

"I'll bet if you look at pictures of world leaders over 20 years meeting the emperor in Japan, they don't bow," Kristol said.

Some said the gesture was particularly grating coming after Obama's bow to Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah at a G20 meeting in April.

The US president's Asia trip comes just over a year after he won election to the White House, and is designed to shore up US power in a region increasingly dominated by rising giant China.

But back home, Obama's bow in Japan seems to have grabbed much of the attention being paid to the trip.

The gesture appears to have touched a particularly raw nerve among Obama critics who said the president has hastened America's decline as a world superpower by being too apologetic and too deferential in his dealings with other world leaders.

While most of the commentary about the bow in Japan was decidedly negative, some political observers, like longtime Democratic activist Donna Brazile, came to the president's defense.

"I think it's a gesture of kindness," she told CNN, adding that the bow appeared intended to show "goodwill between two nations that respect each other."

Meanwhile, an unnamed, senior Obama administration official told the Politico.com news site that the president had simply been observing protocol.

"I think that those who try to politicize those things are just way, way, way off base," the official told Politico.

"I don't think anybody who was in Japan -- who saw his speech and the reaction to it, certainly those who witnessed his bilateral meetings there -- would say anything other than that he enhanced both the position and the status of the US, relative to Japan," Politico wrote.

"It was a good, positive visit at an important time, because there's a lot going on in Japan."

These same stupid lying radical right wing Republicans will say anything to discredit the President. Remember when he visited a grade school ? The idiot Republicans all claimed that the President was there to "indoctrinate" the children. Roll my eyes. Actually, his message to the kids was to stay in school.

I sort of have this suspicion that the kind of people who get all worked up over Obama bowing to foreign dignitaries are the sort of people who are really just upset that he's not bowing to them, saying 'yes, Massa'....

Webster666 saidThese same stupid lying radical right wing Republicans will say anything to discredit the President.

Do you believe a majority of Republicans are stupid, lying and radical?

I believe those who are promoting this are lying & radical. But stupid? Well, "stupid like a fox" as my late mother used to say, even before FOX News was around to suggest a double entendre. This will play well among the Republican base, as intended.

BTW, I'm still looking forward to buying you drinks at the Victor Hotel on Ocean Drive. I promise I won't throw my martini in your face, if you'll agree to the same with me. LOL!

While I don't think people should harp on the guy for it.. The whole thing is a US president isn't supposed to bow to anyone. A slight bow would have been good like they did, especially since that is apart of their culture, but he took a big one, so now people are complaining lmao.

I kinda cringed when I saw how low he went, because of his position, and the fact that the emperor and empress didn't do it like that.. It was kinda embarrassing, just like with the Saudi prince, and when he touched the Queen of England. I knew people would start bitching about it the next day rofl... Poor Obama.. He means well, he really does lol..

Leader-like figures don't bow that low. I'm gonna have to hook Obama up with some Japanese etiquette, because he looked more like a subservient and not a leader, in the presence of another leader. rofl.

My friend over there had seen it, and he thought it was kinda funny too

actually it was not Pres. Obama that touched the queen, it was Michelle after the queen herself put her hand on the back of Michelle. So really who touched who? On the other hand G.W. bush winked at the Queen what was that about.

I would be more embarrassed by a president that the whole world overwhelmingly hates. I am certainly not embarrassed by Pres. Obama and the whole world overwhelmingly likes him.

Here is something interesting:

U.S. becomes top country brand under Obama: Barack Obama has done it again. The president's starpower has made the United States the place most people want to visit and do business with, according to an annual survey that ranks nations like retail brands. .....The United States was seen as the ideal place for business, one of the top places for families, shopping and quality products, as well as one of the countries people wanted to visit whether for the first time or again.

The FutureBrand survey echoes a similar poll which showed that the United States was the most admired country globally, largely thanks to Obama's global popularity

I think that when you're in someone else's country, it is polite to do as they do, to show your humble side.

I was angry, though, when I heard Obama was apologizing for America's so-called "arrogance" to the Europeans, until I read the entire excerpt of what he said.“In America, there is a failure to appreciate Europe’s leading role in the world,” he said in a prepared speech delivered before a campaign-style town hall meeting in which he took questions from mainly French and German students.

“Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges, there have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive.”

But he balanced this startling mea culpa – or, perhaps more accurately, a George W. Bush culpa – with a clear message to Europeans that blaming America for everything was unacceptable.

“In Europe, there is an anti-Americanism that is at once casual, but can also be insidious. Instead of recognising the good that America so often does in the world, there have been times where Europeans choose to blame America for much of what is bad.”

It's amazing how people will pick apart what a political figure says, but not give them credit for the message as a whole. What republican media failed to mention was that Obama also stood up for America as well.

IHG84 saidIt was kinda embarrassing, just like with the Saudi prince, and when he touched the Queen of England.

Hehe, the last queen of England died before there was even a United States for someone to be president of

Bravo, you know your history. Queen Anne was the last Queen of England, upon the Acts of Union of May 1, 1707, when England and Scotland were united as a single sovereign state, creating the Kingdom of Great Britain of which Anne became the first monarch. But we dumb Yanks continue to refer to the "Queen of England" even though that title hasn't existed for over 300 years.

He shows respect to other countries,unlike others who puff up their chests and stand on a superior than thou platform...The world is not impressed with this bravado bullshit....Hats off to OBAMA, america is starting to look respectful to others finally...